The History of Women’s Roughstock and Roping in the WPRA
By Jolee Jordan
magine a cowgirl with the drive to compete, to be measured in the arena against her peers under fair rules of competition, but facing a world where those opportunities were all but nonexistent. Imagine the frustration of that woman—with the skills to rope and ride better athletes who were prettier than she was or wore better clothes. This was the world of rodeo in the mid-20th century. After decades
I
Garden and the Pendleton Round-Up, the death of bronc rider Bonnie the ladies, closing off opportunities and leaving cowgirls with little but (GRA)—now known as the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA)—was planted by a group of 38 cowgirls who wanted more and had the vision and dedication to burrow their way into pro rodeo. While today the WPRA is dominated by the event of barrel racing,
events, enjoying everything from saddle bronc riding to cutting to wild cow milking.
Perhaps the biggest push towards the formation of the GRA seventy years ago was the success of the Tri-State All Girl Rodeo in late 1947.
Texas that September, using their success there as a springboard to form the new organization in February 1948. In fact, the second annual Tri-State All Girl Rodeo was one of the
trailer offered to the All Around Champion. The events offered in Amarillo that year included the sponsor contest (the name given to a timed pattern race, sometimes barrel racing as known in its modern incarnation), calf roping, bareback riding, ribbon roping, cutting and bull riding.
World titles in its inaugural year in the All Around, cutting, wild cow milking, and barrel racing. Before her untimely death in an automobile team tying title and a second barrel racing title, this time aboard a different horse.
40 WPRA NEWS OCTOBER 2018
2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6